Tuesday, October 30, 2007

[political bloggers] failing to connect the dots

Political bloggers may be driving themselves to exhaustion but are they too narrowly channeled?

Just been round to various blogs and one thing is painfully obvious – political blogs are islands and political bloggers run in well worn grooves.

It’s exasperating to see bloggers persisting in pushing the same narrow focus, no matter how correct it is and flatly refusing to either research outside the style of journals they use as their primary sources or failing to take the macro-view into account.

For example, one blogger keeps asking: “Why do we need a stepping stone to an English Parliament?”

Well clearly because there isn’t going to be an English Parliament whilst Brown is there and Brown needs breathing space. How would I know this? Look at Part 3 of the micro-control article and the links and a possible answer is there. At least it's worth considering, which I don't see major bloggers doing.

And why don't we see this sort of thing - three questions for CP? Why are the big boys not covering it?

The regions are being beefed up - this is not even in dispute and CP is moving into positions of influence within local areas. The focus is on RDAs - they flew the regional assembly kite and now it’s occurring by the back door, just as the Treaty is.

Now why would the DTI have altered its website and included regionalization? Why would CP be training people hell for leather in local areas such as the South West to assume command “beyond authority” as they put it? They are doing that – follow the relevant links.

Look – here is a video of Diversity Training at Ian Parker’s site plus his comment:
Diversity training has had to be forced on companies because there are no actual benefits to be derived from it. Were this not the case organisations would already have recognised the competitive benefits and implemented their own diversity programs, without the need for government legislation.
Why are the major bloggers not picking up on these things? Where are they? Tied up in Polly Toynbee and David Milliband. Even Mr. Eugenides touches on the “what” all right and well done but does not get into the “why” or “what is going to happen as a consequence?”
"Looking at the content, the result is that the institutional proposals of the constitutional treaty … are found complete in the Lisbon Treaty, only in a different order and inserted in former treaties," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said.

The former chairman of the European Convention - the body of over a hundred politicians that drafted the 2004 EU constitution – suggests the new more complicated layout was only to avoid putting the treaty to a referendum.
Ignoring the body of evidence out there from the more unorthodox sources, Iain Dale refers to training for something not going to happen:
This sort of training course teaches them debating skills, media skills and how to campaign. It may sound dull to those not involved in the political process, but this sort of thing is vital for young people from all parties if they are to acquire the skillset to become our politicians of the future.
There are going to be no “conservative leaders” because it goes straight from Britain to the EU Treaty regions. We must begin to look more broadly at the whole frame, such as Dizzy did:
What's important to point out here is this is not about saying you think Gordon Brown and the Labour Government are secretly trying to enslave us all in an Orwellian nightmare with the ultimate aim of destroying democracy. No, this is about asking whether the proposal passes the Stalin Test. Would someone like Stalin have found a system like this useful?
So, given that Dizzy is not talking through his hat, then what are the possible consequences of this tightening of restrictions even on people’s movement? A possible answer is via Sackerson, where Tony Allison says, about the peak oil consequences:
For example, we could see a re-birth in local farming and manufacturing, as food and industrial products become exceedingly expensive to transport.
Of course we’re going to – the population is being increasingly made to remain local. Still with Sackerson, Robert McHugh says of the squeeze on the bourgeoisie:
The Middle Class is getting annihilated from this silent event. Incomes are not keeping up. This was done because this administration “equates stock market success with economic success and has directed their efforts to drive up equities at literally any cost,” to quote one of our subscribers.
Can anyone see where this thing is going? Yep, the middle class is about to go bust and those holding gold are sitting pretty:
Charles Merrill, a relation of the Merrill Lynch founder, has become a gold squirrel.
And other big boys who are in the know?
… up to 25% of M&A deals had some dodgy looking share deals associated with them in the past few years ...
Joining the dots – that’s what is necessary here. Think tanks with data from a variety of sources coming in and bloggers combining to sift through it all and get the whole picture.

By the way, was informed today that one of my irregular sources was visited by CP today for 3 hours 59 mins 46 secs and he asked:
Now, do these people waste tax-payers money? :)

17 comments:

  1. Another good one, well said.
    A pity more bloggers can't, as you say, connect the dots.
    Concerning the Tony Allison's words on the evolution of Post Peak Oil Times societies, this article goes to some lengths to discuss this
    He does make the point also, that the "Regional Assemblies" are too large, and their bureaucracy too heavy, to permit the type of small scale entrepreneurial growth that would lead society out of the undergrowth.
    The gentleman concerned was speaking entirely of the UK. Thinking on a broader scheme, this may in fact cause the collapse of the EU in the form we envisage.
    Many troubles ahead!
    I have my own reservations, based on my studies of past civilisations, and the current stampede to dumb-down educational standards, concerning the preservation of vital knowledge, - maths, physics, chemistry, etc.
    I was going to approach this problem from the point of view of the Nulab deliberate decimation of the UK farming community/assets, since they are independent by nature, usually armed, and would be a natural flag-bearer for any resistance, and the first focus for regrowth. You have rather deviated from the course I had anticipated. Oh well, the point has been made :), :)
    Congratulations, once again.

    Oh, by the way.
    In an imitation of the celebrated Fjordman, when this series comes to completion, have you considered a separate area, or one consolidated blog, where these posts can be accessed, and read in sequence?
    After all, these are classics in the making, and one link can then broadcast them round the blogosphere.
    Just a thought.
    Well done.

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  2. Concerning political parties.
    Small parties, like BNP for eg, will be banned.
    Not because they are the BNP, but because, to qualify to be a political party, you must have representation almost throughout the EU.
    I do not see any new parties forming under that regime
    The various regions reporting direct to Brussels are similarly too small to affect anything whatsoever, and I reckon we can pretty much guarantee that inter-regional agreements on principles will be somehow prevented or voided.
    Centrally controlled thought patterns/policies/decisions.
    Communism and gulags.

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  3. BTW, to convert cu. ft. of gas to "barrels of oil", - divide cu.ft. by 6,000.
    Rough, but good enough.

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  4. Hmmm - well, I don't pretend to understand all this, but you make it interesting, James.

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  5. Frustrating it is.

    So many times I see just as you do the mainstream bloggers sticking to small and narrow lines.

    I want to scream at them sometimes, telling them to put their heads out of the box they are in and see what we see, that there wont be any more local councils for the parties to fight over, it will all be run by Quango's (we are nearly there already with Councils only controlling about 5-15pct of their budgets, the rest already automatically diverted to Quango's, charities and service providers).

    I have just done a post about another of the 'dots' that needs to be added into the equation, that of the immigration figures.

    Immigration has for too long been used as both an economic tool to bolster the tax take, which in turn allows massive spending in the areas necessary to guarantee the buying of votes. Again, not just specific to the UK but Europe wide, and beginning to show through now in the US as well.

    Yes, it is frustrating, but we cannot, we must not stop hammering home the message.

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  6. Micro-control 3 plus the others under CP [see blogger finder], DK. They're waiting for you to peruse.

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  7. DK, re your rant.
    Yes you are unpaid amateurs.
    Yes you are (probably)part time.
    Yes, it therefor has to be enjoyable.

    BUT
    Your argument falls down because, as everyone knows, a full breakdown, fully evidenced, of CP activities is impossible to obtain.
    That's why they work the way they do.
    Tying total disbursements from the ODPM to the various charities is damn near impossible for an accountancy detective, let alone a part-time blogger, even assuming that
    a)we can identify all the charities involved
    b)We can map the diffusion of funds around the various distributors, which is in part predicated by our ability to unravel the many interlocking board members and trusteeships, which I have to say will undoubtedly fall fowl of the rules set up by the Charities Commission, should it be bothered to change its position from supine.
    c)The Accounts submitted are correct.
    You know, as well as most of us, that this modus operandi was set up deliberatelly to deceive, confuse and hide its true intent, and that intent can only be discerned by connecting the dots. - watching the results.
    Clearly they are worried, given their visits to various blogsites. The status of their intent is known to them, as evidenced by their concern!!
    Your entire rant therefor is devoid of truth, a publicity stunt.
    Sleepless and grumpy you may be, but I expected better.

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  8. James.
    Roving bloggers invariably settle into blogs that are effectively "echo chambers" of their own belief systems, or as you put it, their world view.

    When something comes along that questions held world views, they can, as you say, move along, or they can attack.

    Don't be put off by attacks, oft-times folks attack from a position of weakness, just be your own man.

    Perhaps I'm here for the echo chamber.
    But I don't think so. :)

    What I do know is that everyones existing world view will be redundant over the next decade, and as scientists tell us, the survival of our society is contingent on its adaptability.

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  9. Just reread this and I think anonymous has a good suggestion re a comsolidated blog.

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  10. Why do we need the big boys when we've got bloggers like you? Great post.

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  11. All read and internalized and thank you kindly.

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  12. And some of us may have joined the dots, may have seen things or heard things but know we cannot comment on these things without risking our future, family or friends. Truth requires wisdom.

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  13. Wolfie> Very true, however sometimes they do slipup and leave documents online which reveal party some of their affiliations (such as very pro-EU) groups. have a read of this and download the file:

    http://engliscfyrd.blogspot.com/2007/11/common-purpose-pro-eu-links.html

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  14. Posted this today:

    http://engliscfyrd.blogspot.com/2007/11/cp-citizens-connect-just-do-it.html


    I came across the fact that Citizenconnection run by Lord Falconer and CP didn't just vanish but moved URL's, I have a feeling these days it's probably merged into the cp.org.uk site.

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